Reyes: Bachmann used retracted statement to attack Democrats.

In a Star Tribune op-ed, House Intelligence Committee chairman Sylvestre Reyes (D-TX) took issue with a March 14 op-ed by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) that attacked House Democrats for not passing the Senate version of Protect America Act. As Reyes noted, in order to make her argument, Bachmann referenced a quote from a Bush administration official that had since been retracted:

[T]he expiration of the so-called “Protect America Act” (PAA) has not degraded our nation’s intelligence collection capability. Bachmann chose to quote the director of national intelligence in his Feb. 5 testimony to support her argument, but on Feb. 23 the administration had to issue a retraction of those statements, stating that the government is now getting full cooperation from telecommunications companies and that the authorities of the PAA remain in full effect.

Reyes said that he “find[s] it troubling that” Bachmann “chose to use a subsequently retracted statement in lobbying on a matter of such importance.”